There can be a place like home* (or at least Charles Dickens thought so)
Photo by Adam Scott Images
When people know I'm a structural engineer, they often ask my opinion on a potential new home or improvements to their existing one. Of course, my answer often must include referring people for professional, official advice from the precise expert they need for the problem. But I understand where the desire comes from to make the house that you live in a real home, a place that feels right, lets the right light in, is comfortable, convenient, and has that good feeling about it that everyone wants from the building in which they spend most of their time.
I started Bailiss&Co when we were planning our own home refurbishment, and as a result it became the first official project I designed working for myself. I had tested a D&B route to “wash my hands” of involvement, but ultimately, I couldn’t let go. They wouldn’t do it right.
We do fewer residential projects of this nature on a regular basis now, but I think there is a lot we can learn from the eagerness of a homeowner to make the space they live in, that their family lives in, work as best they can. It’s an extremely personal space, and we are being trusted with it professionally. And of course we apply this same personalisation to non-residential projects.
In fact, the idea of a “home” does not have to refer to the primary residence of an individual or family. It was Charles Dickens who first used the word “home” to refer to a place of belonging and comfort for a group of people other than a family. He was referring to the ‘house for fallen women’ he founded, a sanctuary for women who had (in very Victorian language) “fallen” into poverty, prostitution and theft. Contrary to many of the prevailing moral views of his time, Dickens believed these women were not only capable but deserving of a second shot at life, and the aim was to support and educate them so that they could begin a better life. Dickens felt a key part of that was ensuring the building that housed these women felt like a home:
“...to make the home like a real home, with a matron who would never ask about the pasts of the young women, with comfortable bedrooms and good food, a garden where they could grow flowers, books to read - even a piano.” [Claire Tomalin in The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/dec/20/charles-dickens-fallen-women-review]
The fact that Dickens referred to the building - known as Urania Cottage, in Shepherds Bush - as a “home” in his letters tells us that he wanted the space, and the project, to not be a punitive institution, but a place the women could feel safe, comfortable, and as if they belonged. Subsequently this use of the word “home” has sunk into the English language in a way we barely notice any more - talking of “care homes” or even Battersea Dogs and Cats Home - as places we hope will provide a valuable sense of belonging that its inhabitants deserve to have.
What can we take from this application of “home” when designing houses, schools, healthcare centres, even offices? The architects I work with and I always try to see the structure we are working on from the perspective of its users, the people who - whilst they may not technically live there - will inhabit the structure for long periods of any given week, and indeed for significant periods of their own lives. It is important that we understand their wants as well as needs, and advocate for them, not only in functional terms, but in the way that a homeowner advocates for their space when planning a refurbishment: how does it feel? Is it easy, relaxing, comfortable? Have we done the absolute best we can do to achieve those things within the constraints of the project? If this was my house - my home - would I be happy spending a big chunk of my life inside it? This could come from expressing the structure, materials and detailing as we did with Sam Tisdall on Gransden Road and Orms on Lumen House, or by creating new and interesting forms and volumes as we have with OEB in Shell Road and Mclaren Excell at Juliet’s Well.
I enjoy people asking me questions about the structures that are their homes; every time they do, it reminds me of the unique and often intangible, but critical, combination of things that turn a structure - any structure, however institutional its purpose - from a building to a home.
*Where does all this chat come from? My partner, when researching Charles Dickens for her finals at university, discovered it was Dickens who was maybe the first to use the term “home” in this sense. A little shout out there. If you want to confirm it, you’ll need to buy the FULL version of the OED with references….